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New direct observations of asphalts and asphalt binders by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy
Author(s) -
LOEBER L.,
SUTTON O.,
MOREL J.,
VALLETON J.M.,
MULLER G.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2818.1996.134416.x
Subject(s) - asphaltene , asphalt , scanning electron microscope , polymer , materials science , aggregate (composite) , atomic force microscopy , microscopy , resolution (logic) , electron microscope , chemical engineering , molecule , composite material , nanotechnology , chemistry , optics , organic chemistry , physics , computer science , artificial intelligence , engineering
Observations made using AFM and SEM have been combined in order to study the structure of asphalts. Fluorescence microscopy was used to aid in understanding the structural changes occurring when polymer is added to the asphalts. With the atomic force microscope we are able to study the structure of the asphalts without any pre‐preparation. Despite very low resolution, our study reveal ed a network of asphaltene molecules with regard to asphalt gel. The same result is obtained by SEM observation but with a much better resolution. SEM observation, however, needs an adequate preparation method. In the presence of polymer we observed a rearrangement of the initial asphaltene association which leads to the assumption that polymer can aggregate the asphaltene phase.